Reading the books
by vampirewithwolfeyes
Summary: Everything's happening to Harry & co. The ministry has made up a new marriage law and Umbridge has found some books. Add in two mutant/witch hybrids from America and you have my fanfic. Only reading up to book 4. Eventual Harry/Harem and Draco/OC Rated T for language
1. Chapter 1

I only own Scarlett and Kyla

Chapter one

_Salem Academy for Magic_

_Scarlett POV_

I sighed as I sat on my bed, my suitcases unpacked and then repacked again. I had been here for a month and I was leaving already, at least I wouldn't be going to Hogwarts alone. My best friend Kyla was going with me as well.

A first year girl ran up to me and handed me a note, I knew it was a first year as she was wearing clothes that were too big for her. Her parents had obviously bought her clothes large so that she would grow into them. I read the note quickly, it was time for me to go to the headmistress's office.

I stood up and flicked my wand at my luggage, it rose into the air and followed behind me. As I walked to the office I ignored the looks that everyone was sending me, they thought I was getting expelled and to be honest I probably deserved it.

Dad had been sending me here since I was eleven, when I received my first letter, and I had issues with authority. I was a powerful mix of mutant and witch, Kyla was too, she just wasn't as powerful.

Before knocking on the door I took the time to smarten my clothes. I was wearing my uniform; a black skirt, a white shirt and tie with the school's badge on and my black cloak was slung over my arm. It was too hot to wear here but I knew Headmistress Jones would want me to wear it in Scotland.

I would miss being able to see Dad once every month but wouldn't miss the amount of lessons or homework. Headmistress Jones pushed us to be the best we could be and we loved her for it, deep down.

Mondays we had Charms and Transfiguration in the morning and Potions and Herbology in the afternoon. Tuesdays were Arithmacy and Foreign Languages followed by English and Care of Magical Creatures. Wednesdays were our longest days: History of Magic and Muggle Studies in the mornings, Defense and Muggle History in the afternoons and Astrology at Midnight. Thursdays were Gym and Power Control in the morning and Combat training and Charms in the afternoons. Fridays were usually Gym and Magical Animal Training in the morning and Care of Magical Creatures and Power Control in the afternoon. Saturdays were our most energetic day with Combat training and Gym in the morning followed by Power control in the afternoons. We didn't even get Sundays off: a Quidditch lesson followed by a study session we had to attend for as long as it took to finish that week's homework. Lessons were on for two hours and we had Muggle lessons in case we ever had to take a muggle job and we wouldn't stand out.

I knocked on the door and was told to come in. I did as I was told and sat down next to Kyla.

She was dressed as I was but her dark blue hair was braided back into a thick french braid, and her green eyes were surrounded by dark mascara making her long lashes seem longer. She was too pretty.

"Girls, I have a few words to say before you go to Hogwarts," Headmistress Jones said, forcing my attention to her.

She was wearing a light shirt and skirt combo with her ash blond hair styled in a severe bun secured with two red chopsticks and minimal make up. Our headmistress was an intimidating woman sometimes.

"You are two of my best students and when you go to Hogwarts I expect you to be on your best behaviour. You are representatives of this school, you are powerful and while I want you to do your best I don't wan't you showing off. You will be continuing your practical lessons, I have already spoken with the game keeper, Hagrid, and he has agreed to house and look after your animals. Your tutors require weekly updates," Headmistress Jones said grabbing the empty birdcage from the shelf behind her and placed it on the desk. "I have told your parents and you will be there for the rest of your school careers. I'm sorry to have to do this to you but due to your heritage you have been paired up with British wizards because of their new marriage law Your luggage will be sent to your rooms."

Headmistress Jones waved her wand over the large suitcases behind us, they glowed for a bit and then disappeared. The birdcage glowed blue as the magic of the portkey was beginning to work. Kyla placed one slender finger on the top and I placed mine next to hers, hating my short nails even more.

The room spun and when it came to stop I wasn't in the office anymore. I wasn't even sure I was in America. I was lying face down in wet grass and it was cold. I sat up and looked around, I had landed in the grounds of some ancient stone castle.

On my left I heard giggling and in an instant had a girl pinned up against the nearest tree with my silver claws pressed against her neck. The anger flooded out of me like water down a drain and I realised I had Kyla pushed up against the tree.

"I did it again, didn't I?" I asked sheepishly.

Kyla nodded and rubbed her neck as I released her and put the claws back into my forearms. Kyla's black wings were like angel's wings and fluttered uneasily as she pressed them against her back as they formed a tattoo version of them.

"Sorry, I really need a good fight," I apologized brushing my uniform down and throwing my cloak over my shoulders.

Kyla had cut discreet slits into the backs of all her shirts for her wings and hardly ever wore a cloak but she threw her own over her shoulders.

"No one will fight you because of what you did to Pete, the poor kid was in the hospital wing for at least three months, and we can't keep calling Thor or your dad in to fight you. It's not fair," Kyla said, straightening her own clothes.

"You mus' be Scarlett and Kyla. Dumbledore said you were comin' today," a giant of a man said.

He was bigger than Thor with a mane of bushy black hair and beard but I doubted this giant had the Thunder God's immense strength.

"Are you Hagrid?" I asked. It paid to be careful, especially in America with all those loonies and weirdos running around.

"Ye' that's me," Hagrid said proudly. "Everyone's in the Great Hall, we're about to read a book."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kyla look confused and tap the side of her forehead with one finger. That was our sign that she had something to say but didn't want anyone to overhear. I nodded and used my telepathy when Hagrid started leading us towards the Great Hall.

_We're going to read a book_, Kyla fumed in her head.

_I know, and maybe afterwards we'll all get a glass of warm milk and have a nice nap_, I thought over to her with a sarcastic edge to my voice.

She stifled a giggle out loud but did have a smile on her face but it left as she thought, _Headmistress Jones can't know about this or she wouldn't have sent us here._

I agreed with her and left her head just as we entered a massive room. Everyone on the four tables in front of us turned to stare at the two new arrivals. In an effort to avoid all the staring eyes I looked up. Where the ceiling should have been was the sky. It was beautiful but I tore my eyes away, the sky had always been in sight but never approachable during my time at Stryker's lab.

"Ah, Miss Howlett, Miss Santori have a seat at the Gryffindor table and we will sort you later. The marriage pairs will be announced later."

"Your dad's not going to be happy about this," Kyla whispered.

I nodded.

We just stood there for a moment and I was seriously considering going into someone's head for information when a bushy haired brunette girl came over to us, introduced herself as Hermione Granger and guided us to the table on the far right. We sat down in front of two guys Hermione introduced as Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Ron was a gangly redhead with freckles who was openly staring at Kyla's ample chest. Harry was a dark haired skinny boy with bright green eyes hidden almost by circular glasses. He looked familiar but I couldn't place his face.

The doors swung open again and revealed the strangest group of people. Harry introduced us as they sat near us. The dog that was with them was odd. It looked like a scruffy Irish Wolfhound and gravitated towards me like most animals, a side affect of Stryker's experiments, but its thoughts were human and it started fighting against the pull.

"You want to see Harry boy?" I asked, not caring that people were staring.

The dog, or whatever it was, whined and nodded its large head.

"Go on then, I'm not gonna stop you."

The dog barked once, licked my hand and headed towards Harry under the table. I didn't have to be a mind-reader to know that people were curious about what just happened.

"I'll tell you later," I told Hermione, who looked like she was about to burst with questions, and Harry, as it was obviously his dog or at least a dog he knew.

"Hem, hem," a voice from the teacher's table carried over to us. It was a sickly sweet voice and when I saw the woman it belonged to the words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"Kyla, there's a toad teaching here."

Everyone who had heard started laughing and Kyla shook her head.

"One of these days, Scar, that mouth is gonna get you in trouble."

"Even if I'm telling the truth?" I pouted.

"Especially if you're telling the truth," Kyla laughed. "I haven't forgotten about the last time you were in trouble with Headmistress Jones."

"How was I supposed to know that Alex would be singing soprano all his life?"

I noticed the twin redheads look at me and smile with excitement in their matching blue eyes. I smiled back uncertainly.

"Hem, hem. As I was saying, before I was interrupted, we will be reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. That is if there are no more interruptions?" The toad woman said, sending a pointed look at the old man next to her, who shook his head slowly. "Good, I have been told to tell you that no house points will be gained or lost through this reading, with that I shall begin."


	2. Chapter 2

I only own Scarlett and Kyla

Chapter two

_No POV_

"This chapter is called **The Boy Who Lived**," Umbridge said.

Harry groaned, they just had to call it that.

**Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much**

"You're..." Fred Weasley started.

"Very..." George Weasley continued.

"Welcome," they finished together.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

"And that means they're going to be involved with something strange or mysterious," Kyla whispered to Scarlett who nodded.

**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.**

"What's a Drill?" A first year Ravenclaw asked.

"It's a tool for putting holes in things," Hermione answered.

"Why would they want to do that?" The Ravenclaw's friend asked.

"So they can put shelves up on walls and put things together," Scarlett answered before Hermione could, the girl looked confused.

The Ravenclaws looked satisfied with the answer and Umbridge continued.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache.**

Kyla nudged Harry with her elbow, "He sounds handsome," she said sarcastically.

**Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours.**

"Charming," Hermione muttered.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

Those who had seen Dudley burst out laughing at the description, he was not small and they could name people who had better manners.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret,**

"What, Mrs Dursley's secretly bald?" Kyla asked

"Mr Dursley's thinking of going on a diet?" Scarlett asked.

Scarlett had gotten the feeling that the Dursleys weren't that nice, and she didn't even need to go poking around in Harry's head. He was broadcasting his thoughts and they were miserable and she had told Kyla.

**and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. **

"That's a stupid fear," a third year hufflepuff boy said, "They are far more things to be scared of."

The boy's class had just faced boggarts in Defense Against the Dark Arts so he thought he knew what he was talking about. He was surprised to see that his class and the two new students were agreeing with him.

**They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"And what's wrong with the Potters?" Many of the teachers who had known Lily and James asked.

**Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister,**

"That's horrible!" Parvati Patil cried from the Gryffindor table. "I would never pretend I didn't have a sister no matter how angry I was at her."

A lot of people were nodding along and Padma came over and gave her sister a hug before sitting back down on the Ravenclaw table.

**because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish**

"Not a word," Hermione glared at the book.

**as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered **

"Bet that caused an earthquake," Ron muttered to his mate, he didn't think anyone heard him.

"Ronald!" Mrs Weasley shouted, her shrill voice giving Scarlett an instant headache.

**to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**

"This is rather old-fashioned but I imagine they would say Hello," Draco Malfoy drawled from the Slytherin table.

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

Privately Umbridge agreed, if she had kids she would keep them away from the lying Potter brat too.

"A child like what exactly?" Professor McGonagall asked.

**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts,**

"I thought it already had," a very confused Neville said.

**there was nothing about the cloudy sky to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie**

"His most boring tie?" Fred Weasley exclaimed in horror.

"What do you think Fred does this qualify?" George asked holding out his school tie for inspection.

"No, I think it could be more boring," Fred answered seriously.

**for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. **

**None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr Dursley**

"You do not encourage behaviour like that," Madam Pomfrey scolded.

No-one dared to mention that she was talking to a book.

**as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map.**

"Professor Minnie!" The Weasley twins shouted.

"Don't call me that," Professor McGonagall snapped.

**For a second, Mr Dursley didn't realise what he had seen – then jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.**

"Of course..."

"Definitely..."

"A trick of the light," The twins chorused finishing off their parlour trick of finishing off each other's sentences.

**Mr Dursley blinked and stared as the cat. It stared back.**

Lots of people in the hall paled or shivered. They had been on the receiving end of the cat animagus's stare.

**As Mr Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said _Privet Drive_ – no, _looking _at the sign; cats couldn't read maps _or_ signs.**

"We know Minnie's weakness. She can't read maps or signs," The Weasley twins chorused.

'Minnie' ignored them, she was secretly pleased about the effect she'd had on the fat muggle.

**Mr Dursley gave himself a little shake**

"Did the car survive?" Scarlett stage-whispered to Kyla, making sure Harry could hear.

"Yes," Harry said with a small smile, the Americans were making him feel a lot better about all this.

**and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"Why is that strange?" Neville asked.

"Muggles don't wear cloaks," Hermione said.

**Mr Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes – the get-ups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing close by.**

A lot of the people in the hall huffed angrily, the nerve of this guy, but Kyla and Scarlett suddenly burst out laughing.

At Harry and Hermione's confused looks Scarlett managed to explain, "If he thinks you lot are weirdos he's never been to America."

**They were whispering excitedly together. Mr Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him.**

"Yes, the nerve of him, whatever was he thinking?" Fred asked pompously.

"I do not know, brother of mine, but red is such a better colour than Emerald-green," George answered just as pompously.

The hall roared with laughter apart from the Slytherins, who had caught on to the hidden meaning in that sentence.

**But then it struck Mr Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt – these people were obviously collecting for something ... yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on, and a few minutes late, Mr Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.**

"One track mind?" Seamus asked Harry.

Harry nodded, happy that Seamus was talking to him again, but Ron asked with a mean edge to his voice, "Oh are you talking to us again?"

**Mr Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. _He_ didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time.**

"WHAT?" all of the purebloods and students who had grown up in the wizarding world thundered.

Scarlett covered her ears and so did Lupin, couldn't those people keep the shouting down to a minimum.

"Muggles don't use owls to deliver the post," Kyla explained, her voice almost bored

**Mr Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"Productive," Ernie McMillen from Hufflepuff said dryly.

Fudge agreed but he was being serious and did not realise that Ernie was being sarcastic.

**He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"He walked?" Harry asked incredulously.

**to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite.**

"Oh, that's more like it," Harry said.

**He'd forgotten about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed.**

"Why, they haven't done anything to you?" Angelica asked.

**He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy.**

"And you probably make them uneasy you fat pig," Susan Bones from Hufflepuff snapped.

Her friends agreed with her and Harry looked cautiously at the redhead.

**This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag,**

"Only one?" Ron asked.

**that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"**The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard – "**

" **- yes, their son, Harry - "**

The teachers sucked in air, was it _that_ day?

**Mr Dursley stopped dead.**

"If only," Harry muttered darkly.

Hermione, Ron and Lupin looked at him curiously. Scarlett met his eyes with understanding however.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office,**

"And had a heart attack," Scarlett said defiantly.

Everyone around her laughed but Mrs Weasley was thinking. She had heard things from her friends in America about mutants and something about Scarlett and Kyla made her think that they were dangerous.

**snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone,**

"What's a telephone?" Pansy Parkinson asked, and ignored the looks her house mates were sending her.

Scarlett and Kyla shared a look, didn't Hogwarts teach muggle studies?

Their question and Pansy's was answered by Charity Burbage, "A telephone is how the muggles communicate over long distances, it's a bit like our floo system but they can't see each other's faces. If anyone else has any questions write them down and we will discuss them later in the break."

**and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking ... no, he was being stupid.**

"and he's just realised that now?" Lavender asked, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry.**

"Not in the wizarding world," Professor Sprout said.

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew _was_ called Harry. He'd never seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"He doesn't even know his nephew's name," McGonagall said shaking her head.

"To be honest, professor, I think he still doesn't," Harry said sadly.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs Dursley, she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her – if _he'd _had a sister like that ...**

"Because yours is such much better," Harry said darkly.

**but all the same, those people in cloaks ...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon, and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"**Sorry,"**

"He knows that word? Here was I thinking he was an impolite jerk," Susan Bones said, she was acting as the unofficial spokesperson for the Hufflepuffs.

"Oh, he is an impolite jerk, unless he wants something. Then he's just a jerk," Harry replied making Susan blush.

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem upset at all at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare: "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"Professor Flitwick, was that you?" Cho Chang asked.

"Yes it was," the tiny charms teacher said.

**And the old man hugged Mr Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"How in Merlin's name did your arms fit, Filius?" Professor Vector asked.

"They didn't."

**Mr Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"He doesn't approve of imagination?" The Weasley twins asked.

When Harry shook his head they made a choking noise and fainted.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw – and it didn't improve his mood – was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"**Shoo!" said Mr Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behaviour, Mr Dursley wondered. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word ("Shan't!").**

"What a horrible boy," most of the female staff thought.

**Mr Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living-room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The news reader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"**Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early – it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters ...**

"He's putting it all together now," Sprout whispered to McGonagall.

**Mrs Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er – Petunia, dear – you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr Dursley mumbled. "Owls ... shooting stars ... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today ..."**

"**_So?_" snapped Mrs Dursley.**

"**Well, I just thought ... maybe ... it was something to do with ... you know ..._her lot_."**

**Mrs Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'. He decided he didn't dare.**

"He's scared of her?" Kyla asked Harry, who just shrugged.

**Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son – he'd be about Dudley's sge now, wouldn't he?"**

"**I suppose so," said Mrs Dursley stiffly.**

"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"**Harry. Nasty common name, if you ask me."**

"No it's not. It's a lovely name," Ginny Weasley shouted. Harry was hers and no-one was going to be nasty to him.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed."**

"Aah no! The images they burn," The twins screamed.

People jumped, they hadn't realised that they had come round.

**While Mrs Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it was waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things?**

"I thought he didn't approve of imagination?" Luna Lovegood asked from the Ravenclaw table.

"The thing is my uncle is like that, he's a hypocrite," Harry answered her.

**Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did ... if it got out that they were related to a pair of – well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"A pair of what?" Professor McGonagall asked, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

**The Dursleys got into bed.**

Everyone looked at the Weasley twins as if they were daring them to make a sound. They didn't but Scarlett and Kyla gave a small whimper.

"Not an image anyone wants to see," Kyla explained.

"How didn't he crush her?" Scarlett asked in genuine wonder.

**Mrs Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters _were_ involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind ...**

"If he thinks that about wizards and magic imagine what he would think about Beast?" Kyla whispered to Scarlett.

**He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn't affect _them_ ...**

**How very wrong he was.**

**Mr Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the next street, nor when two owls swooped over head.**

Scarlett nodded appreciatively, it was hard to do that.

**In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

A massive cheer erupted from the staff and students that still supported Dumbledore. It took at least three loud bangs from Umbridge's wand to quiet everyone.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"I knew, I just didn't care," Dumbledore chuckled.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise that he was being watched because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again – the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement.**

"Want one," The Weasley twins shouted.

**Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Knew it was Minnie," the Weasley twins shouted.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one.**

"Never had you down for a snake, Minerva," Snape said to his competition in the house cup.

"Shut up Severus."

**Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"How do you sniff angrily?" Scarlett asked.

Fred and George demonstrated.

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no – even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls ... shooting stars ... Well, they're not completely stupid.**

"Hey!" All of the muggle raised kids said, including Hermione, Kyla, Scarlett and Harry.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," McGonagall apologized.

**They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent – I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"**You can't blame," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"What not even Birthdays or Christmas?" A first year Ravenclaw.

No-one was surprised that the kid didn't get an answer.

"**I know that," Professor McGonagall said irritably. "But that's no reason to lose out heads. People being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went one: "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose her really _has_ gone, Dumbledore?"**

"No," Harry muttered.

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"**

"A what?"

"**A _What_?"**

"Creepy!"

"**A shebert lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"You and your sweets," McGonagall said fondly.

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who _has_ gone -"**

"And he has," Fudge said firmly.

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this "You-Know-Who" nonsense – for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name:**

Umbridge faltered so Harry said it instead, **Voldemort."**

Everyone flinched apart from Harry, Dumbledore, Scarlett and Kyla.

At Harry's inquisitive gaze Scarlett explained, "Voldemort isn't that much of a threat in America and we have so many other threats to worry about."

"Like who?" Hermione asked.

"Loki, Venom, Kingpin, Bullseye, Magneto and his brotherhood," Kyla answered. "Are we counting Hulk in that list?" She asked Scarlett."What about the Rider?"

Scarlett nodded, "Hulk doesn't really care what he does and for some reason has something against Dad. Not sure about the Rider, he doesn't like me since I threw a bucket of water on him."

"I still can't believe you did that."

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who'. I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying**, Umbridge broke off again.

**Voldemort**, Harry said.

**'s name."**

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half-exasperated, half-admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know – oh, all right, _Voldemort_,** Umbridge forced the name out as if it physically pained her to say –** was frightened of."**

"**You flatter me," said Dumbldore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Only because you're to noble to use them," Hermione said.

"**Only because you're too – well – _noble_ to use them."**

"Hermione thinks like McGonagall," Fred said in mock horror.

The other Weasleys and Harry started laughing but when Hermione glared at them they stopped.

Mrs Weasley smiled, glad that there was someone at Hogwarts to keep her boys in line.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"Eww," Scarlett said simply.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing to the _rumours_ that are flying round. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer.**

"**What they're _saying_," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are – are – that they're – _dead._"**

Everyone was silent and looked down in remembrance of Harry's parents. Harry himself had tears in his green eyes.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

"**Lily and James ... I can't believe it ... I didn't want to believe it ... Oh, Albus..."**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know ... I know ..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But – he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy.**

Scarlett clasped her hands over her ears as Kyla exploded, "WHAT KIND OF SICK FREAK TRIES TO KILL A CHILD?"

When she was finished Scarlett removed her hands and said one word, "Stryker."

Kyla sat down, her wings fully out and smacking the people closest to her in the face.

**No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke – and that's why he's gone."**

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"**It's – it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done ... all the people he's killed ... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding ... of all the things to stop him ... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"**We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

_You know,_ Harry thought looking straight at Dumbledore.

Of course, Scarlett was the only other person who knew about this.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no number; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me _why_ you're here of all places?"**

"**I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"**You don't mean – you _can't _mean the people who live _here_?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore – you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son – I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"Thanks for trying Professor," Harry said weakly.

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"A letter?" Hermione asked, growing angry.

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous – a legend – I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future – there will be books written about Harry – every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Hey, Harry, we know what to get you for your birthday next year," the twins said together, grinning wickedly.

"Should we be scared?" Kyla asked, meaning her and Scarlett.

"**Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, "Yes – yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though as she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"I hope not," Mrs Weasley said, fixing the book with a meaningful stare.

"**Hagrid's bringing him."**

"**You think it – _wise –_ to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," Harry, Hermione and a reluctant Ron said.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"That, was creepy," Scarlett said to no one in particular.

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "But you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to – what was that?"**

"Sorry Hagrid," McGonagall said, realising how she must have sounded.

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

'Snuffles' the dog whined and Scarlett zoned in on the dog. She didn't think that the dog was a real dog.

_I miss that bike_, Sirius thought, it wasn't like anyone would hear him.

Scarlett heard and raised one dark eyebrow. She knew that the dog wasn't a real dog.

**If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so _wild –_ long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorbike?"**

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me.**

Watching the dog, Scarlett saw its head jerk up at the name before it dropped down and she heard, _Stupid. You don't want to draw attention to yourself._

**I've got him, sir."**

"**No problems, were there?"**

"**No, sir – house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

"Note to self Harry falls asleep over Bristol," Ron said.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep.**

"Awww," the girls cooed and the boys mocked.

Scarlett, Kyla and Hermione just laughed at the look on Harry's face.

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightening.**

"**Is that where – ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar for ever."**

"Unfortunately," Harry muttered.

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

"**Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

"Too much information," Kyla said.

**Well – give him here, Hagrid – we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys' house.**

"**Could I – could I say goodbye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.**

**He bent his great, shaggy head over to Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall. "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

"**S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it – Lily an' James dead – an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles –"**

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep,**

Scarlett disappeared under the table with her hands on her ears as all of the females in the hall screamed, "YOU LEFT HIM ON THE DOORSTEP!"

Scarlett gingerly reappeared when the shouting had stopped only to find her best friend shaking in anger.

"Are you OK Kyla?" Scarlett asked, it was an unspoken agreement that they never talked about their traumatic pasts in public.

**took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. "I'd best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall – Professor Dumbledore, sir." **

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself on to the motorbike and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

_I never did get that bike back_ Sirius thought.

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone.**

"Apparation," Penelope Clearwater from Ravenclaw said nodding her head.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles,**

Kyla shivered slightly, remembering a particularly vivid memory.

**nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley ...**

A low growl ran through the hall.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!"**

"If Voldemort has gone then why were they meeting in secret?" Kyla asked a just as confused Scarlett.

They ignored the shiver that ran through the crowd at the name.

"They were hiding Miss..." McGonagall started.

"Santori," Kyla supplied helpfully.

"They were hiding Miss Santori because Muggles are not aware of us in general."

"Who wants to read now?" Umbridge asked.

"I will," McGonagall answered taking the book from her.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own anything you recognize

Chapter three

_NO POV_

"This chapter is called **The Vanishing Glass**," Professor McGonagall read out.

"Does that mean we get to see some accidental magic?" Hermione asked.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living-room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls.**

"Boring," the Weasley twins intoned.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats - **

The hall roared with laughter.

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father,**

"A what?" a few purebloods asked.

"Muggle thing," Hermione answered bored.

"Boring," Draco drawled.

**being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"You left?" Kyla asked.

Harry shook his head.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.**

"**Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Can you remember when Xavier decided that Syren should wake us up like that last summer?" Kyla asked Scarlett.

"To be honest with you I'm trying to forget about it," Scarlett paled and rubbed at her ears.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"**Up!" she screeched.**

"Give him a chance," Molly Weasley snapped.

**Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker.**

_Prince Potter probably doesn't have to lift a finger_ Snape thought bitterly

**He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"That's because you have," Cho said softly.

Ginny went red, Harry was hers, and Hermione started to feel jealous.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"**Nearly," said Harry.**

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn,**

"They made you cook?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded.

Hermione started to get annoyed so Scarlett intervened, "I've been cooking since I was ten."

"But Scar, your dad can't cook and to be fair you were only making sandwiches," Kyla said.

**I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"Duddy? How old is this kid?" Scarlett asked.

"Same age as me," Harry answered.

**Harry groaned.**

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"**Nothing, nothing ..."**

**Dudley's birthday – how could he have forgotten?**

"Because it wasn't important to you?" Luna supplied helpfully.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and,**

"Why would he keep socks under the bed?" A Hufflepuff asked.

"Maybe he's just lazy," A Slytherin drawled.

**after pulling a spider off one them,**

Ron shivered.

**put them on. Harry was used to spiders,**

"How can you be used to spiders?" Ron asked Harry.

Harry shrugged.

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

Scarlett and Lupin both clapped their hands over their ears as every teacher and every student on Harry's side started shouting.

"Why didn't you tell us you slept in a cupboard?" Hermione asked.

"It never came up," Harry answered.

"But, second year, when we came to pick you up, you were in a bedroom," Ron said.

"Not until after I got my letter."

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise – unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"That better not be you," Ginny growled.

**Dudley's favourite punch-bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair **

"James," most of the teachers sighed.

**and bright-green eyes.**

"Lily," Snape sighed so quietly that only Lupin and Scarlett heard him.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"You like it?" Ron asked.

"I did until I actually found out what it meant."

**He had had it for as long as he could remember and the first question he could remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had got it. **

"That's sad," a few Ravenclaws said.

"No it's not. Scarlett what was your first question?" Kyla asked.

"Why can I do this?" she asked letting out the silver claws she shared with her dad.

People around her scooted away slightly.

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

_**Don't ask questions**_** – that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"How are you expected to learn if you don't ask questions?" a few Ravenclaws asked.

Harry shrugged, "I'm expected to figure it out on my own."

Little did they know but Professor McGonagall was rethinking her opinon of Harry. There was one lesson where he seemed to be struggling and she had thought he didn't ask for help because he was too proud.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut.**

"Maybe we should start saying that instead of good morning," the twins said.

**Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way – all over the place.**

"The famous Potter hair," Remus said softly.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"He sounds handsome," Kyla drawled.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel – Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's **

"Wasn't that the one?" Ron asked, giving Harry a meaningful look.

Harry just smiled, ignoring people's confused looks.

**present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then,"**

"Thirty-seven presents? I don't even get that many," Draco sounded like he was whining.

Scarlett got more than thirty-seven presents for her birthday, Kyla too, but it was just because of the amount of people at the mansion and how many people they knew. They stayed quiet.

**said Dudley, going red in the face.**

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"He does that often?" Kyla asked.

Harry nodded.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another _two_ presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? _Two _more presents. Is that all right?"**

"That is not how to correctly parent a child," Madam Pomfrey scowled.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."**

"Good Gods, he can't even count," Kyla shook her head.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

**"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"Don't encourage him!" McGonagall hissed.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote-control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch**

Scarlett, Kyla and every other muggle raised student in the hall's mouths dropped open. How rich was this family?

"What are they?" A slytherin pure blood asked.

"Expensive muggle stuff, very expensive muggle stuff," Scarlett asked before Hermione could go into a complete explanation of everything mentioned.

**when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"That's a lot of cats," someone on the Ravenclaw table remarked.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**

"Oh yes, a ten year old has planned that?" Kyla asked shaking her head.

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty again.**

"Cool names," Scarlett muttered sarcastically.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"The feeling's mutual. I hate her to."

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Kyla and Ron shuddered but for different reasons. Draco smirked at Ron from his place on the Slytherin table.

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?"**

**"On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"Not going to happen, you could have fun."

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"No, that's how she normally looks," Harry remarked.

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"You did, didn't you?" Kyla asked Scarlett.

"I didn't blow up a whole house. I blew up part of the tower and it wasn't even my fault."

The Weasley twins were looking at Scarlett so she explained, "Thor was chasing me through Banner's lab and things went boom." Scarlett mimed something blowing up.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly. " ... and leave him in the car ..."**

"That's illegal and I wouldn't even do that to Demon," Scarlett whispered to Kyla.

"Speaking of Demon, she'll need fed soon."

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone ..."**

"Oh yes, a car is more important than your nephew," Hermione said.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Can you imagine if I tried that with dad? I'd be disowned," Scarlett whispered to Kyla.

People around them shared a look.

**"Dinky Duddydums, **

The whole hall roared with laughter at the ridiculous nickname.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"They fit?" A Ravenclaw asked.

**"I ... don't ... want ... him ... t-t-to ... come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"Have you actually ever done anything to him?" Kyla asked.

"Not that I can remember."

**Just then, the doorbell rang – "Oh Good Lord, they're here!"**

Professor McGonagall froze as the door to the great hall opened and in walked a tall man wearing some kind of armour and carrying a heavy war hammer. As he got closer the whole room could see he had blond hair that reached his shoulders.

Kyla nudged Scarlett, who turned and sunk into her seat. As they watched the blond man the whole school saw that a man wearing a pair of dark jeans and a brown leather jacket over a checked shirt walked in after.

"Oh not good," Kyla said and at Hermione's curious look explained, "The dark haired bloke is Scarlett's dad and the other one is Thor, the norse thunder god."

Scarlett popped her head up to say, "I'm in so much trouble."

The two men sat down next to the two mutants and were introduced.

"What's going on?" Logan asked.

"I'll explain later."

"Great timing though guys," Kyla laughed.

McGonagall had frozen when Thor walked in and Dumbledore, not getting any response from her took over reading the book.

**said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

Sirius and Remus growled. Scarlett looked disgusted and wouldn't tell anyone why and Harry, Ron and Hermione all pulled a face.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them, this was usually Harry.**

Hermione scowled, feeling quite protective of her best friend and Scarlett moved Kyla away from Logan slightly. He wouldn't hurt her intentionally but Scarlett had a bad feeling about those Dursleys.

**Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course, it's weak to cry in front of your friends," Pansy Parkinson sneered from the Slytherin table. "Even the stupid muggle knows that."

Scarlett stood up and glared at her, "It's not weak to cry in front of people who are your true friends but you wouldn't know that would you? You've probably never had reason to cry."

Everyone on the Gryffindor table looked confused but as she sat down Kyla smiled softly at her friend and both Logan and Thor gave Scarlett a quick hug.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

"How old is this kid, this Harry?" Logan whispered in such a dangerous voice that even the people who didn't know him were worried.

Instead of answering him, Scarlett pointed at Harry, "We're reading about him."

While Harry answered Logan's question proud that his voice didn't shake, he didn't know it but that had just gave the Americans and the two new arrivals a better impression of him, "I was ten at the time but I'm fifteen now."

Logan didn't say anything and montioned to the high table for the reading to continue.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

Logan growled and Scarlett sighed. She faced her dad and the thunder god and told them everything they had uncovered so far. It was odd to see the adults looking so ... murderous. Sure Scarlett had seen Thor angry before but this was worse and it was a common occurence that her dad was mad at someone or something, usually Bobby or Pyro.

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's. "I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"Please tell me you weren't in that cupboard that long?" Logan asked, pinching the bridge of his nose and breathing hard.

Harry just shook his head, pale at the memory of that day.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly ..."**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

The muggle raised in the room nodded, people hadn't believed them either.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left 'to hide that horrible scar'.**

A lot of girls reached up and touched their own hair, the boys snickered at them.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and Sellotaped glasses.**

"I wouldn't have laughed," Hermione said so quietly only Logan, Scarlett, Remus and Sirius heard. Sirius heard because he was in his dog form.

Sirius and Remus shared a knowing look.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he _couldn't_ explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"James did the same thing."

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles).**

Lavender and Parvati looked ill.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

Everyone was relieved, even Malfoy but he wouldn't admit that out loud. Potter's life wasn't supposed to be anything like his own, Potter was supposed to be a pampered prince.

**On the other hand, he'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"Woah, you apparated?" Ron asked.

"I think I flew," Harry answered.

"Lily," Severus Snape whispered so quietly that Logan and Scarlett could only just hear it, their mutations giving them a much better hearing than Remus and Sirius in dog form.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

"Harry, even you aren't that scrawny..."

"... we need to teach you how to lie better."

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard or Mrs Figg's cabbage-smelling living-room.**

Logan growled.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank**

Kyla paled at the mention of the bank, it was where she'd got caught. Nobody noticed however.

**and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorbikes.**

**" ... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said as a motorbike overtook them.**

From his place next to Harry Sirius smiled as much as a dog could and even Scarlett and Logan started laughing, but they were laughing for a different reason.

Kyla gave them an odd look.

"Young," Scarlett gasped and then Thor and Kyla started laughing, people gave them odd looks.

**"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

Nearly everyone in the room facepalmed.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front.**

Thor looked ashamed at something and Scarlett had gone pale. Logan was glaring at the sky muttering under his breath.

**He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a mustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"**

"Yes they do, especially if Stark's involved," Scarlett muttered.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon – they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"Harry, get dangerous ideas. Never," the twins said together.

Harry blushed and sank into his seat slightly remembering every plan but Scarlett was glaring at Thor, who was trying, and failing, to look innocent.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly.**

People glared at the book.

**It wasn't bad either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

"Harry, that's offensive to gorillas," Scarlett said seriously, earning a round of laughter from everyone who heard.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time.**

"Course it would be," Hermione snarled at the book.

**He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunch-time, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**

A low growl went through the hall, started and ended by Logan with Hermione being one of the loudests.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

"If I did that you would kill me," Scarlett said to her dad, who nodded.

**Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"Uh oh," Hermione said.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the wall. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a dust-bin – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

Harry listened with growing nervousness. Would people stop talking to him when they found out? He didn't know what he would do if Sirius and Remus stopped talking to him.

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped on the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

Scarlett let out the breath she had been holding, she hated it when people did that at the zoo.

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up – at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

"You're comparing yourself to a snake?" Ginny asked.

No-one was listening to Logan and Scarlett's whispered conversation.

"We have to do something. He's living or at least he had been living like I had when Stryker got me."

"But what can we do?"

Scarlett shrugged.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

_**It winked.**_

"Do snake's even have eyelids?" someone asked.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"You're winking at a snake?" someone else asked.

Sirius and Remus noticed that Harry had gone very pale and wondered what that was about.

**The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "_I get that all the time."_**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

_**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**_

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: _This specimen was bred in the zoo._ "Oh, I see – so you've never been to Brazil?"**

"You're a Parceltounge?" Remus asked.

Harry nodded sadly and Remus said, "Why didn't you tell us? Never mind, I'm sure you had your reasons. I don't care and I'm quite sure that Snuffles doesn't either."

'Snuffles' nudged Harry's hand and looked at him with kindness in his eyes.

Scarlett, who couldn't help it, looked at Harry and smiled.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T_ BELIEVE_ WHAT IT'S DOING!'**

**Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could.**

"Like a penguin?" Charlie asked, people had forgotten he was there.

"That's insulting to penguins," Scarlett shot back, clearly enjoying herself. She had met Charlie and Bill before.

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on the floor – people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come ... Thanksss, amigo."**

"At least he's polite," Scarlett remarked to Kyla, who smirked.

"I wonder if he ever made it to Brazil," Harry wondered out loud.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Nice one, you got the muggle. Much better than what Scarlett did," Thor said loudly so that everyone on the Gryffindor table heard.

"Um, thanks," Harry said, oblivous to the glares Logan and Scarlett were sending the god. "What did she do?"

"I made dad and Stark fly through a window and then I died Thor's hair bright pink and made him wear a dress for at least a month before I calmed down enough to change him back," Scarlett answered.

"At least you didn't get punished for it," Harry said and the subject was closed due to the look on his face.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg,**

"That wouldn't happen," Scarlett said annoyed, and Charlie was agreeing with her.

**While Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

Scarlett and Charlie snorted.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"GIT!" Everyone shouted and surprisingly only Umbridge and Fudge were the only adults who tried to scold everyone.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak but he could hit Harry hard with his belt. He managed to say, "Go – cupboard – stay – no meals," before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"He hit you and starved you?" Logan said, in a deceptively calm voice.

"And worse," Harry whispered so quietly and softly that Logan and Scarlett were definitely worried. "It was worse when he'd had a drink."

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"Dad, you and I are going to see Demon after this chapter, you're scaring the first years," Scarlett said when Logan started growling.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

"That's 'cause you weren't," Cho said softly from the Ravenclaw table, ignoring both Hermione and Ginny's stares.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision; a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.**

A lot of the teachers looked shocked and scared. He shouldn't have been able to remember that.

**He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

"There wouldn't be would they?" Hermione snarled.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

"Not anymore," Harry smiled.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"Idiots," Draco snarled and everyone who knew him was surprised.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glassed, and nobody liked disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"I would've," Hermione muttered and she wasn't the only one.

"OK everyone, I have a few more people I need to invite so you can all have a half an hour break."

Logan and Scarlett were the first to leave and Scarlett almost dragged Harry with them hissing, "we need to talk."


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own anything

Chapter four

_Scarlett_

Harry followed us and somehow I wasn't surprised that Hermione came with us, she wanted answers. As I looked back at the teacher's table I saw that the old witch who had been reading before still hadn't moved, her eyes following Thor out of the room.

We reached the borders of the forest and both Harry and Hermione paled.

"We're not going in there are we?" Harry asked.

"It's just a forest," Dad said shaking his head.

"No," Kyla said, then called out, "Prince."

A rustling could be heard and out of the gloom a shining white Pegasus walked out. Hermione started cooing at the horse and I rolled my eyes.

"Every bloody time," I muttered, people usually fell in love with Prince so much that they ignored Demon.

"Don't you like him, he's so cute?" Hermione asked.

I rolled my eyes again and mind-shouted, as Kitty called it, to Demon. He padded along, almost running towards me and Harry's mouth dropped open when Demon stood out in the open.

Demon was a hell hound, a present from Thor for my eleventh birthday, and went up to Thor's shoulder on four feet. Demon had taken the form of a wolf and would look quite scary but his face spoiled the effect slightly. Demon's eyes reflected the flames of Hades and his teeth were like daggers but at the moment his tongue was lolling out in a kind of dopey doggy grin.

I tossed him the cow carcass I'd found outside a little stone hut on the grounds. There was a note on it saying it was for Demon anyway. While he chomped on the bones quite happily Hermione started asking questions before anyone had a chance to do anything.

"What are you?" She asked.

"We're mutants mainly, but Kyla and Scarlett are also witches," Dad answered, conveniently leaving out Stryker.

Hermione was satisfied with that answer but I could tell she wanted to know more.

I sighed, "Kyla can fly. Dad's a feral, like me, we have accelerated healing, heightened senses and thanks to experiments we both have skeletons laced with adamantium and long metal claws. Thanks to experiments done later by the same person I was left with mind reading, mutant detection, I can talk to animals, shape shift into animals, control shadows and speak every language human, magical animal or magical creature. I think it has something to do with my magic."

Demon pushed his head into my hand, begging for a stroke.

"I knew it was a good idea to get you a hell hound," Thor observed.

"What did you do to Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked.

"Who?"

"The woman who was reading the book when you came in."

"Oh, her. Let's just say we've met in the past."

"Please tell me you didn't ..." Dad said.

"No, some students of hers found out a way to bring me to earth. We had fun playing pranks. Guess she just remembers who I am and what I can do."

I was just about to ask who when Snuffles came running out. He took one look at us and changed into a human with dark hair and grey eyes.

"Sirius," Harry said and hugged him. "Why can't you be human?"

"I'm still a wanted criminal, for something I didn't do," the man added seeing that Harry and Hermione weren't alone.

Dad snorted, "The only ones here who aren't wanted criminals, I'm guessing, are Harry and Hermione."

Sirius ignored that comment and Hermione looked guilty.

"Dad, you're only wanted if they know it was you or you get caught."

"Which you do, a lot."

"Not my fault, the cops hate us and anything that goes wrong is a mutant's fault according to them."

"Harry, what happened at the Dursleys?" Dad asked, Thor and Sirius looking too.

"What you heard in the book and worse."

"Did they touch you?" Dad asked.

"Not like that," Harry said after awhile, obviously trying to figure out Dad's cryptic comments. "They just hit and starved me, I got locked in the cupboard a lot though."

"Did it get worse after you started here?" Kyla asked suddenly.

"In a way, I'm sure the books will tell you," Harry said bitterly.

"So, about this marriage law?" Dad said changing the subject from something that made one person uncomfortable to something that made us all uncomfortable.

"What about it?" I asked.

"When will I meet him?" he asked.

"I dunno but he has to be feral. I'm not outliving him, even if he's a pratt."

The sound of horses broke the awkward silence and when I looked up I saw carriages drawn by more pegasus's like Prince. Following Harry and Hermione's eyes I looked out onto the lake and saw a majestic boat rise out of the water, like a submarine.

"The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students?" Harry asked. "What are they doing here?"

"Dumbledore must have told them, they are involved in our fourth year after all. Why weren't you lot at the Triwizard tournament last year?" Hermione asked.

"Headmistress Jones refused, on the grounds that we have so many pupils that aren't a hundred percent human. It would be unfair to everybody else, and plus nobody wanted to leave," I shrugged.

Demon, butted my shoulder with his head, annoyed at being ignored. I reached up and patted his head.

"You're a big baby do you know that?" I said to him. "Of course I don't blame you, spending the first few months of your life with Thor."

_Better Thor than Tony_ Demon said in my head. _At least with Thor I didn't have to worry about things blowing up._

I giggled and Demon changed his form from a giant wolf to a pure white normal sized German Shepherd but with his own eyes. I knew what he was doing and wasn't sure if it would work or not.

We couldn't get anything else out of Harry so we went back to the hall. Sirius was back in his dog form and there was some food laid out on the four long tables. We sat down and I noticed the youngest red head glaring at us and Ron was looking at Harry with suspicion in his eyes and staring at Hermione with unashamed lust.

When the new arrivals walked in, every student in the room turned to stare. The beauxbaton ladies walked in first, wearing blue silk dresses and blue hats. They were all lovely and I remembered from somewhere that most of the students there were Veela, or at least had Veela blood. One girl, the one in the front, turned and smiled at Harry. She was of course drawing looks of envy and hatred from the girls and lust from the boys. Most of the men in the room were looking at her the same way but some kind of common sense had kicked in with Dad and Thor.

"Veela attraction doesn't work on Gods, or ferals," Dad whispered to me.

The Durmstrang boys walked in next wearing red tunics with fur cloaks. Hermione smiled at the one in front and Ron scowled.

I grabbed some food while Dumbledore explained what was going on. After the explanations were done the students sat down. The blonde Veela and her sister sat down next to Harry.

"Eet is nice to see you again 'Arry, 'Ermione" she said in a very strong French accent. (A/N: I can't write accents so bear with me. I'm not going to write Hagrid's much either.)

"Bonjour Fleur," Hermione smiled.

"Hello Fleur," Harry said.

"Who are your friends?" She asked, meaning me, Scarlett and the rest.

Silently I thanked Headmistress Jones for making me do extra foreign language lessons because I could at least understand what I was saying most times now.

"Bonjour, mon nom est Scarlett Howlett et c'est mon ami Kyla Santori. Il est agréable de vous rencontrer," I said, purposely ignoring the looks people were giving me. My accent was almost perfect. "C'est mon père Logan, et mon parrain Thor. Vous n'avez pas à vous inquiéter que vos cadeaux insolites ne les affectent pas"

"Je suis Fleur Delacour et c'est ma petite sœur Gabrielle. C'est agréable de savoir que quelqu'un parle français ici, parlez-vous d'autres langues? Vous êtes américain?"

People were getting confused but I ignored them. "Un peu juste. Canadienne, mais je vis en Amérique"

"Vous devez aimer l'étude, dis-moi qu'est-ce que vous avez découvert au sujet de Harry? Comme une Vélane, je suis en mesure de bon sens et son auras était très bizarre la dernière fois que j'étais ici."

"Bizarre, comment voulez-vous dire?" I asked, the girl looked scared.

Hermione spoke French but this was at a level that was above her, so she was completely lost. Gabrielle was following though and from the look on her face she knew what her sister meant.

"Il a l'aura d'un homme bon, un ... homme pur, mais il ya quelque chose de sombre et tordu ... enroulé autour de lui."

Gabrielle spoke up, "J'ai vu Harry potentiel l'an dernier, quand il m'a sauvé du lac. Son aura, son aura réel, se sentait comme il a été piégé par des chaînes. Il les rompit que pour un temps, avant qu'ils réformé. Plus tard, j'ai parlé à mon maman à ce sujet, elle m'a dit que pour briser les chaînes de façon permanente, il aurait besoin d'aide. "

Harry's face told me that he knew we were talking about him. Dad was nudging me, asking me what we were talking about.

"Plus d'une centaine d'années et a encore de demander à sa fille de quinze ans, ce dont elle parle. Quoi qu'il en soit, vous avez mentionné l'aide, quel genre?"

Fleur looked confused at the first part of my sentence but answered my question, "Gobelins"

"Gobelins? Merci."

"Il est un bon garçon, l'homme, en dépit de cela, mais il pourrait être beaucoup, beaucoup plus si les chaînes sont supprimés," Fleur mused out loud.

She was aroused at the thought of Harry being pure, as she'd said, I could smell it and so could Dad. He looked at me as if to say 'what were you talking about?'

"Dad, you have so much free time, why don't you learn French? I'm sure the Professor would teach you."

It was funny to see everyone's faces when they realised I had snapped from French to English so quick.

On the teacher's table I could see that someone else had taken over reading, and that Professor McGonagall still hadn't moved.

**Translations are from Google, sorry if it's not perfect. My own French is a little rusty, I haven't spoke it in over at least four years.**

**"Bonjour, mon nom est Scarlett Howlett et c'est mon ami Kyla Santori. Il est agréable de vous rencontrer," - **"Hello, my name is Scarlett Howlett and this is my friend Kyla Santori. It is nice to meet you,"

** "C'est mon père Logan, et mon parrain Thor. Vous n'avez pas à vous inquiéter que vos cadeaux insolites ne les affectent pas." - **"This is my father Logan, and my Godfather Thor. You don't have to worry as your unusual gifts do not affect them."

**"Je suis Fleur Delacour et c'est ma petite sœur Gabrielle. C'est agréable de savoir que quelqu'un parle français ici, parlez-vous d'autres langues? Vous êtes américain?" - **"I'm Fleur Delacour and this is my little sister Gabrielle. It's nice to know that someone here speak French, do you speak other languages ? Are you American?"

**"Un peu juste. Canadienne, mais je vis en Amérique" -** "A fair few. Canadian, but I live in America"

**"Vous devez aimer l'étude, dis-moi qu'est-ce que vous avez découvert au sujet de Harry? Comme une Vélane, je suis en mesure de bon sens et son auras était très bizarre la dernière fois que j'étais ici." **- "You must like to study, tell me what have you discovered about Harry? As a veela, I am able to sense auras and his was very strange the last time I was here."

**"Bizarre, comment voulez-vous dire?"** - "Strange, how do you mean?"

**"Il a l'aura d'un homme bon, un ... homme pur, mais il ya quelque chose de sombre et tordu ... enroulé autour de lui." **- "He has the aura of a good man, a pure man ... but there is something dark and twisted ... wrapped around him."

**"J'ai vu Harry potentiel l'an dernier, quand il m'a sauvé du lac. Son aura, son aura réel, se sentait comme il a été piégé par des chaînes. Il les rompit que pour un temps, avant qu'ils réformé. Plus tard, j'ai parlé à mon maman à ce sujet, elle m'a dit que pour briser les chaînes de façon permanente, il aurait besoin d'aide."** - "I saw Harry's potential last year, when he rescued me from the lake. His aura, his real aura, felt like it was trapped by chains. He broke them only for a while, before they reformed. Later I spoke to my maman about it, she told me that to break the chains permanently he would need help."

**"Plus d'une centaine d'années et a encore de demander à sa fille de quinze ans, ce dont elle parle. Quoi qu'il en soit, vous avez mentionné l'aide, quel genre?" - "**More than a hundred years old and he still has to ask his fifteen year old daughter what she's talking about. Anyway, you mentioned help, what kind?"

**"Gobelins" - **"Goblins"

**"Gobelins? Merci." - **"Goblins? Thank you."

**"Il est un bon garçon, l'homme, en dépit de cela, mais il pourrait être beaucoup, beaucoup plus si les chaînes sont supprimés,"** - "He is a good boy, man, in spite of this, but it could be much, much more if the chains are removed."


	5. Chapter 5

I only own Scarlett and Kyla

Chapter five

_No POV_

"This chapter is called **The Letters from No One**," Madam Hooch read.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked.

"Harry gets his Hogwarts letter, why is it plural?" Hermione asked.

Harry just sunk into his seat.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

"When is Dudley's birthday?" Logan asked.

"April," Harry said in a tiny voice.

"When do the holidays start over here?"

"June or July mainly," Hermione said.

Logan's eyes narrowed and he fixed them on Dumbledore, who didn't look sorry.

His face was blank but Scarlett was using her telepathy on the old wizard. Scarlett's power of telepathy outweighed the old man's legilimency as her's was a part of her and Dumbledore had cheated, doing it the easy and quick way. Persuading the goblins to inscribe the neccessary runes on his wand, the wand that never left his hand.

_I hope Harry can understand why I sent him there, it was for the Greater Good._

Scarlett growled and Demon licked her face.

**and Dudley had already broken his new cine-camera, crashed his remote-control aeroplane and, first time on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"Horrible boy," McGonagall said suddenly.

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Imagine if Malfoy had the same logic," Ron said.

Malfoy looked vaguely ill at the thought.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry-hunting.**

Logan growled.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley.**

A massive cheer went up in the hall.

**Dudley had a place at Uncle Vernon's old school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there, too. Harry, on the other hand was going to Stonewall High, the local comprehensive. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Who knows what goes on in that head of his," Harry said.

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practise?"**

"How would he know about that if he'd never been?" Scarlett asked just to cover up what her dad was muttering.

**"No thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as your head down it – it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

The hall roared with laughter and over the noise Snape's voice could be heard, "That was very Slytherin of you Potter."

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs Figg's. Mrs Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Chocolate shouldn't be treated like that," Remus said shaking his head.

Of course, many people agreed with him.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living-room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters.**

Most of the girls in the room turned green, even those in Slytherin.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How?" Molly Weasley asked.

"Wouldn't do much good if he angered a mutant above class two, though," Thor whispered to Logan, making a careful note of Scarlett's face.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might have already have cracked from trying not to laugh.  
**"And trust me, it was that hard."

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.**

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

**"Oh," he said. "I didn't realise it had to be so wet."**

"Why do I have a feeling that sarcasm won't work on her?" Kyla asked.

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue.**

Ron snorted, "You have self-control?"

Harry went off into a pretend sulk.

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High – like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smeltings stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

"He really did carry it everywhere."

**They heard the click of the letter-box and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the post, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"The tub o'lard has to do something?" Bill asked.

**"Make Harry get it."**

"That's more like it."

**"Get the post, Harry."**

**"Make Dudley get it."**

**"Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley."**

Logan shook his head, "that man is going to have a meeting with me that he'll never forget."

**Harry dodged the Smeltings stick and went to get the post. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and – _a letter for Harry._**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would?**

Ginny went bright red and Harry, already knowing that Ginny had tried, ignored it and focused on the other Weasley's who had guilty expressions all over their faces.

"Where are these letters?" Harry asked Dumbledore.

"In a vault at Gringotts."

**He had no friends, no other relatives – he didn't belong to the library so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back.**

"When you meet this man, I'm coming too!" Scarlett hissed.

**Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

"That's very precise," Thor remarked.

"That didn't happen with me," Hermione whispered. "I was visited by McGonagall."

"Harry n'aurait pas dû être envoyé une lettre, il vit avec moldus si un membre du personnel de l'école doivent suis venu et nous a tout à la famille," Fleur said, since finding out that Scarlett spoke very good French, she felt more comfortable speaking her first language. It was good for keeping secrets, too.

"Je suis d'accord que c'est ce qui s'est passé pour moi, même si j'ai eu et ont encore le contact avec Thor qui a sa propre magie. Les mutants sont normalement pas au courant de la magie de sorte que la directrice de Salem Academy m'a expliqué certaines choses, Kyla et le reste du personnel de la Maison-Blanche où nous passons nos étés," Scarlett said, agreeing with Fleur that speaking a language, at a level, that many people didn't understand was an excellent way of keeping secrets.

"Vous avez décidé quelque chose, qu'est-ce que c'est? Ma sœur et je vous aiderai du mieux que nous pouvons. Certaines de traitement de Harry peut être imputée à l'ignorance," Fleur said, tapping long slender fingers against her mouth. Scarlett's aura and body language were telling her more than Scarlett herself, quietly Fleur thanked her Veela heritage for the first time.

"Je ne sais pas, mais oui vous deux peut aider," Scarlett said and the matter was closed and Madam Hooch continued reading.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

"Don't have to ask about that one," Arthur Weasley declared proudly.

Harry and Ron looked away from each other in an effort to not laugh.

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion,**

"Gryffindor!" The Gryffindor's cheered.

**an eagle,**

"Ravenclaw!"

**a badger**

"Hufflepuff!"

**and a snake**

The Slytherins just sat there silently, they weren't about to embaress themselves.

**surrounding a large letter 'H'.**

"Hogwarts!" Everyone on the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables cheered apart from Logan, Thor, Kyla, Scarlett, the Beauxbaton students and the Durmstrang students.

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter-bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"Oh that was so funny I forgot to laugh," the Weasley twins said sarcastically in unison.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk ..."**

Harry smirked evilly.

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**"That's _mine_!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.**

"Eww," Hermione stated.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"Dramatic much Tuny?" Remus asked shaking his head.

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness – Vernon!"**

The Weasley twins, Kyla and Scarlett looked at each other and burst out laughing. People around them gave them funny looks until, "Gross, do you have to think that? I still have to live with them," Harry asked.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smeltings stick.**

"Can you imagine if we did that?" A pale Fred Weasley asked his just as pale siblings.

Scarlett was just as pale.

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**"_I_ want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's _mine_."**

"You tell him Harry," Scarlett said bored, she was taking Sirius's thoughts and telling Harry. All three knew and the two males were grateful, Scarlett just wanted out of Sirius's head. Whenever the Dursley's came up it wasn't hard to see why they'd thought Sirius could be a murderer.

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

Everyone who had been on the recieving end of Harry's temper paled but Remus and Sirius smiled.

"Lily and James' tempers," Remus and Scarlett said at the same time.

**"Let _me_ see it!" demanded Dudley.**

_**"**_**OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them.**

Logan and Sirius growled, and Scarlett paled. She and her dad had seen a lot of death, destruction and torment, but it was nothing compared to what was going on in the two men's heads.

**Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address – how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

**"Watching – spying – might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Oh yes because we have nothing better to do," Draco drawled, shocking everyone once again, everyone that is apart from Fleur and Logan.

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer ... yes, that's best ... we don't do anything ..."**

**"But-"**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"What does he mean by that Mr Potter?" Professor McGonagall asked.

Harry turned his head away and mouthed at Logan, "They physically abused me."

Logan's claws came out at that and before he could do anything Thor and Scarlett were there. They weren't talking nonsense meant to sooth but promising that these Dursleys, the scum, would get what they deserved. Thor went so far as to suggest Hulk and The Ghost Rider, the two people that hated the Howletts. If those four were in the same room then there would be nothing left standing.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "I have burned it."**

**"It _was not_ a mistake," said Harry angrily. "It had my cupboard on it."**

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling.**

Ron shuddered.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"I hope it was," Hermione snarled, surprising those who didn't know her that well.

**"Er – yes, Harry – about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking ... you're really getting a bit big for it ... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom."**

"What?" Logan snarled, the wolverine getting so close to taking over.

"Excuse me, Professors, but would it be rude of me to ask someone for the biggest glass of the strongest alcohol you have, it is not for me but my dad. It will calm him down greatly, I highly doubt that you would like to see this room torn apart," Scarlett asked politely to the teachers but in reality she was asking Hogwarts not to reveal her secret, not yet anyway.

A house elf popped into existence carrying a glass that was about half the size of it, the elf was wearing the hogwarts pillow case, looked at Scarlett and managed to hold out the glass.

Scarlett took it and gave it to her dad, saying quietly to the elf, (in English as not to freak people out) "Thank you, send my regards to your true mistress and I ask you and your kin not to reveal my heritage until I'm ready."

The house elf nodded solemly and disappeared back to the kitchens.

After that odd exchange Madam Hooch started reading again,

**"Why?" said Harry.**

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now!"**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia,**

Fred and George grinned evilly at each other before producing a long piece of parchment.

**one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

Logan growled and grabbed the piece of parchment the Twins were writing pranks on. When he gave it back, the Twins's eyes were wide at the words and plans that Logan had wrote. Some of it was worse than what Stryker had done to Scarlett, and in Logan's mind that was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old cine-camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over next door's dog:**

All of the animal lovers in the room snarled or made similar noises but they were drowned out by Demon's almost roaring snarl.

Scarlett now had the parchment from the Weasley twins and was writing down a death sentence for Dudley; _set Demon on to him._

**in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite programme had been cancelled;**

"Because that will bring it back," Kyla retorted with the sarcastic edge that she was famous for.

**There was a large birdcage which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air-rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.**

Scarlett and Logan's mouths dropped open, just how fat was this kid?

**Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Of course they wouldn't be touched," a lot of the Ravenclaws retorted.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother: "I don't _want _him in there ... I _need_ that room ... make him get out ..."**

"What you want and need? What about what Harry wants and needs? He's got nothing and do you hear him complaining?" Susan Bones snapped suddenly.

She _liked_ Harry but like most of the rest of the school knew that Harry was going to end up with Hermione, but when Harry looked at her she still blushed.

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smeltings stick,**

The Weasleys and Scarlett paled.

**been sick on purpose, kicked his mother**

The Weasleys paled again.

**and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof**

"Was the tortoise OK?" Both Charlie and Scarlett asked.

Harry nodded, "the neighbours took it in, no questions asked. I think the Dursleys paid them off not to tell the RSPCA."

**and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the post arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.**

"Why?" Thor asked.

"Because if there were anymore letters they didn't want me to read them," Harry shrugged.

**They heard him banging things with his Smeltings stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! _Mr H. Potter, The Smallest, 4 Privet Drive _-"**

"If he wanted to read it why didn't he read it?" Susan asked.

"He can't read."

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

The Golden Trio looked at each other and smiled.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smeltings stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to you cupboard – I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley – go – just go."**

**Harry walked and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

The Gryffindors groaned.

"My plans aren't that bad."

"Yes they are mate," Dean said laughing slightly.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall towards the front door – **

"That's not that bad," Logan said.

**"AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Harry leapt into the air – he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat – something _alive_!**

"Please be the whale," The twins begged Harry.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realised that the big squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

"Yes!" The twins exclaimed and surprisingly so did Thor.

Scarlett and Logan just stared at him.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour, hit him**

Logan growled and Scarlett quickly got out of Sirius's head, you didn't need to be a mind reader to know what they were thinking.

**and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen, and by the time he got back, the post had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**"I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the letter-box.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mountain of nails, "if they can't _deliver_ them they'll just give up."**

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"She does have some knowledge of our world you know," Remus said.

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruit cake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"And for that, we are grateful," Charlie said.

"Did it work?" Scarlett asked Harry.

"Knowing my aunt's cooking it probably did."

**On Friday, no fewer than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the letter-box they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs toilet.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed 'Tiptoe through the Tulips' as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"Paranoid," the Weasley Twins sang.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milk-man had handed Aunt Petunia through the living-room window.**

"Very creative," Dumbledore told McGonagall.

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in herr food mixer.**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to _you_ this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"All of you apparently," Harry told the Weasley siblings.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

"That can't be good," Logan told Thor, who nodded.

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them happily as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,**

"Definitely not normal," Kyla said, eyeing Harry.

"What?" He asked.

"You look normal, how?" She asked, causing everyone to laugh.

**"no damn letters today -"**

The purebloods in the hall looked confused.

"Muggles don't get post on Sundays," Remus explained. "I took a job in the muggle world since I can't keep one here."

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one -**

"Seeker," The Weasley twins said proudly.

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.**

Everyone growled.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car speeding towards the motorway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, video and computer in his sports bag.**

"Idiot," Logan said.

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turning and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

**"Shake 'em off ... shake 'em of," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day.**

Madam Pomfrey and Molly Weasley scowled, Harry really was too thin.

**By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programmes he'd wanted to see and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"Poor baby, welcome to Harry's life," The Patil Twins snarled in complete unision despite being on different tables.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the window-sill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering ...**

"What?"

"Probably if the house was still being filled with letters."

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast next day.**

"That is not a proper breakfast!" Hermione all but shouted.

"It's more than I had all day when _he_ had me," Scarlett said quietly.

Logan, Thor and Kyla knew who _he _was and why she didn't speak the name.

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

_**Mr H. Potter**_

_**Room 17**_

_**Railview Hotel**_

_**Cokeworth**_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining-room.**

"I wonder what Bullshit he fed her, to keep those letters away from you," Scarlett told Harry, ignoring the shocked faces around her.

**"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

"The sound probably couldn't get through his thick skull."

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a s uspension bridge and at the top of a multi-storey car park.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"Daddy went mad a long time ago," Scarlett said.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

Snape shivered, he hated that word.

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a _television._"**

"I would want to stay somewhere with a phone and a roof," Scarlett said to Kyla.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"The roof is self-explanatory. I would want a phone so I could call the cops and have the man arrested," Scarlett said bored, and looking at her fingernails.

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it _was_ Monday – and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television – then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

"Happy Birthday to you," sang the Twins.

"Guys, my birthday was forever ago and you know it."

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun – last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat-hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Not Good," Scarlett stated.

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

All of the muggleborn and muggle raised narrowed their eyes.

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out to sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowing boat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them.**

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls and the fire-place was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

"He really didn't want you to get your letter," Scarlett told Harry but her eyes were focused on the headmaster.

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a packet of crisps each and four bananas.**

Madam Pomfrey and Molly narrowed their eyes at the book and then turned almost matching looks of pity onto Harry.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty crisp packets just smoked and shrivelled up.**

"Bâtard débile idiot," Fleur spat.

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver post. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"Who would it cheer up?" Kyla asked.

"You can't fault his logic," Thor was saying to Logan who surprisingly agreed.

"It's just the planning that needed a little work," Scarlett said.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eated sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep.**

"Who would be able to sleep through that?" Someone on the Hufflepuff table asked

"Kyla," Scarlett answered.

**He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight.**

Scarlett and Logan fixed Thor with matching stares.

"How was I supposed to know? Anyway Loki started it."

"He always does."

**The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter-writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

"Or you could have been killed!" Hermione's voice was shrill with worry.

"I'm here now aren't I?"

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds ... twenty seconds ... ten – nine – maybe he'd wake Dudley up just to annoy him - **

"Do it," almost everyone begged.

**three – two – one - **

**BOOM**

Everyone jumped as Madam Hooch had yelled it.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

Harry smiled, he knew what the next chapter was going to be about.

"Unfortunately we will have to wait as it's time for the marriage pairs to be announced," Dumbledore said standing up.

Translations

**"Harry n'aurait pas dû être envoyé une lettre, il vit avec moldus si un membre du personnel de l'école doivent suis venu et nous a tout à la famille"** - "Harry should not have been sent a letter, he is living with muggles so a member of the school staff should've come and explained everything to the family"

**"Je suis d'accord que c'est ce qui s'est passé pour moi, même si j'ai eu et ont encore le contact avec Thor qui a sa propre magie. Les mutants sont normalement pas au courant de la magie de sorte que la directrice de Salem Academy m'a expliqué certaines choses, Kyla et le reste du personnel de la Maison-Blanche où nous passons nos étés,"**- "I agree that's what happened to me, even though I had and still have contact with Thor who has his own magic. Mutants are not normally aware of magic so the headmistress of Salem Academy explained things to me, Kyla and the rest of the staff at the Mansion where we spend our summers,"

**"Vous avez décidé quelque chose, qu'est-ce que c'est? Ma sœur et je vous aiderai du mieux que nous pouvons. Certaines de traitement de Harry peut être imputée à l'ignorance,"** - "You are planning something, what is it? My sister and I will help in whatever way we can. Some of Harry's treatment can be blamed on ignorance,"

**"Je ne sais pas, mais oui vous deux peut aider," **- "I'm not sure, but yes you two can help,"

**"Bâtard débile idiot," - **"Idiot, moron bastard"


End file.
